Paladin
This article is a description of the character class '''Paladin'.'' For a description of the role of paladins within the lore of Warcraft, see Paladin lore. For related articles, see Category:Paladins Overview The Paladin is a tough, mana-using melee and caster hybrid class who supports his teammates through auras, blessings, and healing. Though they aren't as powerful as a Warrior or Rogue in melee or as powerful as a Priest or Druid in healing, they are arguably the strongest support class in the game. Paladins can use various auras to enhance their entire party, and they have a varied selection of useful buffs to aid others in addition to their healing and tanking capabilities. While the Paladin's heals aren't as powerful as those of a Priest, Druid or Shaman, they are very mana-efficient, making them great endurance healers, support healers, and even excellent main healers in well balanced groups. Unlike Priests, Paladins can stand their own in melee, supporting their allies from the front. Paladin can play diverse role in groups, including tank or healer. Paladins also have several abilities (such as Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Turn Undead) which make them a powerful force when fighting Demon and Undead targets (not including Forsaken undead player characters). Many non-paladin players (and indeed, many paladin players) do not have a firm grasp on the abilities of the class. Many Paladin spells and abilities are supportive in nature, and a player who chooses a Paladin as "a Warrior that can heal himself" will often be disappointed. With the right talent build and gear, a Paladin can perform extremely well as a tank, healer, or a DPSer, but it is often difficult to perform all three roles, since all three rely on the same limited pool of mana. The Paladin's traditional role in PvP, other than passive auras & buffing, has been to: spot heal, cleanse, stun, damage, judge and tank. They are essentially a combat medic. They can withstand lots of punishment and have very good survivability vs. melee classes. However, they don't survive as well against casters such as: Warlocks, Mages and Priests. In addition, Exorcism, Holy Wrath and Turn Undead are useless in PVP except against Warlock's pet demons. Paladin's offensive abilities are very limited, because Blizzard has defined the Paladin's role as being Defensive support. The Paladin's main offensive weapons are others in his group, so he needs to keep his group alive in order to be effective. With the advent of the 2.0 talent changes, and Crusader Strike, however, Paladins have become much more offensively enabled since their damage output cannot be completely interrupted by a counterspell or a kick. The Paladin's main role in PvE Raiding, however, focuses primarily on healing and off-tanking, as this class is only one of four that can continuously heal in combat, and are great at managing multiple mobs. Since the Paladin has some of the most mana-efficient and low-threat healing spells in the game, it is not uncommon for the raid leaders to assign the paladins to "float heal" the entire raid as their quick-casting heals help delay death long enough for the slower, more powerful heals of Priests and Druids to land on their target(though this may change for non-Holy speced Paladins in the Burning Crusade, as HoT spells will stack). The Paladin's multiple defensive capabilities usually keeps them alive in the raid and are among the last to fall in the event of a wipe. Races The Paladin class can be played by the following races: Alliance * Dwarves * Humans * Draenei Horde * Blood Elves Blood Elf Paladins belong to the Order of Blood Knights, while human and dwarven paladins are usually Knights of the Silver Hand. Draenei paladins are probably not members of the Silver Hand, although this could change in time. Weapons and Armor From the start, paladins can wear cloth, leather, or mail armor, and can train to wear plate armor at level 40. They may use a shield. They can summon their own Warhorse at level 40 (which they can obtain for 90 silver from a trainer), which can be quested to an epic Charger at level 60. They can use the following melee weapons (either innately or through training): *swords, one- and two-handed *maces, one- and two-handed *axes, one- and two-handed *polearms (at level 20) *Fishing Poles Paladins can't use ranged weapons Paladins cannot dual wield or use any conventional ranged weapons. For ranged damage, a paladin has several limited options: *taking the Engineering profession in order to obtain limited ranged capabilities such as dynamite, bombs, and trinkets. *:one notable option for a paladin who specializes in Gnomish Engineering is the Gnomish Death Ray, since a paladin's invulnerability shield prevents the player from taking the damage normally associated with using this item. (Note: Blizzard has mentioned that this will no longer work in past patch notes, although it has not been changed yet. Actually, they noted that while in blessing of protection if the trinket fails and backfires, you will still take damage, however you do not take damage while casting it, and nothing official has been stated on this topic.) *a ranged trinket such as It has a 3 minute cooldown each time it is used. *non-engineering explosives such as EZ-Thro Dynamite or EZ-Thro Dynamite II *using Judgement in combination with a seal (see below) allows for a limited range attack similar to (but more limited than) a druid's Moonfire. *spending talents in the Holy tree to acquire the spell Holy Shock *using Hammer of Wrath on an enemy with less than 20% of their health left *As of Patch 2.0 Avenger's Shield has been added to the Protection tree. *Blood Elf paladins can also use their racial ability, Mana Tap, to have some limited pulling of mana-based mobs. You may be interested in a compendium of the best Paladin's weapons. ;See also: :Formula:Mana regen & Shields Auras In addition to spell buffs, a Paladin can also boost their group's abilities through the use of Auras. Multiple paladins can use different Auras within a group (although two Paladins using the same Aura gain no additional effect). The different Auras are as follows: * Devotion Aura: Gives additional 55/160/275/390/505/620/735/861 armor to nearby party members. (type: Protection; first acquired at level 2; 7 ranks) Armor bonus can be increased via talents * Retribution Aura: Causes 5/8/12/16/20/26 holy damage to any creature that strikes a party member. (type: Retribution; first acquired at level 16; 5 ranks) Holy damage can be increased via talents * Concentration Aura: Gives 35% chance of ignoring spell casting delays caused by damage to nearby party members. (type: Protection; first acquired at level 22; 1 rank) Chance of ignoring spell casting delays can be increased via talents * Sanctity Aura: Increases Holy damage done by party members within 30 yards by 10%. This is gained through a talent. (type: Retribution; Obtained at the Retribution Talent Tree; 1 rank) This aura may be improved through talents to add a bonus to healing done to all party members within its range. * Shadow Resistance Aura: Increases the group's shadow resistance to 30/45/60/70. (type: Protection; first acquired at level 28; 3 ranks) * Frost Resistance Aura: Increases the group's frost resistance to 30/45/60/70. (type: Protection; first acquired at level 32; 3 ranks) * Fire Resistance Aura: Increases the group's fire resistance to 30/45/60/70. (type: Protection; first acquired at level 36; 3 ranks) * Crusader Aura: Increases the mounted speed by 20% for all party members within 30 yards. Players may only have one Aura on them per Paladin at any one time. For more details, Auras are at the top of this Thottbot's Paladin skills chart. Blessings Blessings are spell buffs that can be used on the paladin or other characters. Most can be cast on any friendly but some are limited to the paladin's party. Blessings last 5 minutes unless noted. The different Blessings are as follows: * Blessing of Might increases melee attack power by 25/35/55/85/115/155/185/220 (type: Retribution; first acquired at level 4; 8 ranks) attack power can be increased via talents * Blessing of Protection grants immunity to physical damage for 6/8/10 seconds (party member only) (type: Protection; first acquired at level 10; 3 ranks) cooldown can be reduced via talents * Blessing of Wisdom grants 10/15/20/25/30/33/41 mana each 5 seconds (type: Holy; first acquired at level 14; 7 ranks) mana gain can be increased via talents * Blessing of Freedom grants immunity to movement impairing effects for 10 seconds and frees target from said effects (type: Protection; first acquired at level 18; 1 rank) duration can be increased via talents * Blessing of Salvation grants a 30% reduction in threat generation (type: Protection; first acquired at level 26; 1 rank) * Blessing of Sanctuary reduces damage taken from all sources by 10/14/19/24/80 and inflicts 14/21/28/35/46 holy damage to the attacker if the attack is blocked by a shield (type: Protection; first acquired at level 21; 5 ranks) This is gained through a talent. * Blessing of Light increased heal made by Holy Light by 210/300/400/580 and Flash of Light by 60/85/115/185 (type: Holy; first acquired at level 40; 4 ranks) * Blessing of Sacrifice transfers 45/55/81 damage per hit taken to paladin for 30 seconds (party member only) (type: Protection; first acquired at level 46; 3 ranks) * Blessing of Kings grants +10% to all attributes (type: Protection; first acquired at level 20; 1 rank) This is gained through a talent. See Blessings at Thottbot for a complete list of available Blessings and their effects. Greater Blessings Introduced in patch 1.9, Greater Blessings are longer-lasting, easier to buff versions of normal blessings. Greater blessings last for 15 minutes and will buff members of the group of the same class as your target. Requires 1 Symbol of Kings per each blessing cast and requires the highest rank of corresponding normal blessing in order to be trained. Seals Seals are short-term self-buffs which boost the Paladin's power temporarily. Effectively, they add a weapon proc to their melee strikes. Additionally, Paladins can unleash these seals upon an enemy. Each type of seal will have a different effect when unleashed. The Seals provide the following buffs to the Paladin: See Thotbott for a list of Seal effects at each level. Other Abilities Aside from Auras, blessings and seals, paladins have a few other spells that complete the class' arsenal. * Redemption: Redemption is the paladin resurrection-like ability that will restore a player character from their corpse with partial health and mana. The spell cannot be cast in combat and is interrupted when attacked. (First acquired at level 12; 4 ranks; type: Holy) * Righteous Fury: Buffs the caster, increasing threat caused by holy damage by 60%. (First acquired at level 16; 1 rank; type: Protection) This spell's threat generation, as well as allow the paladin to reduce damage taken by a percentage via talent * Divine Protection/Divine Shield: The Paladin becomes immune to all attacks for a few seconds. (First acquired at level 6; 4 ranks; type: Protection. Name changes from protection to shield at level 34. Divine Shield allows you continue attacking while shielded at 50% attack speed.) Divine Shield's attack speed reduction may be removed down to 0%, as well as increasing the paladin's stamina by a given percent via talent * Divine Intervention: Sacrifices the Paladin to remove the selected friendly target from combat for 3 minutes being immune to all damage. The Paladin does not take any durability loss. (first acquired at level 30; 1 ranks; type: Protection) * Righteous Defense: Come to the defense of a friendly target, commanding up to 3 enemies attacking the target to attack the Paladin instead. (first acquired at level 14; 1 ranks; type: Protection) * Spiritual Attunement: A passive ability that gives the Paladin mana when healed by other friendly targets. The amount of mana gained is equal to 8% of the amount healed. (first acquired at level 18; 2 ranks; type: Protection) * Lay On Hands: Sacrifices all of the Paladin's mana to heal your target of an amount equal to your maximum HP. Restores mana as well at higher ranks. (first acquired at level 10; 3 ranks; type: Holy) Cooldown can be reduced, as well as an increase of armor with a given percentage via talents and/or via a bonus when you wear 4 pieces of T3 * Hammer of Wrath: Hurls a hammer at the target enemy, causing high(holy) damage. Only usable on targets lower than 20% HP. Works like an Execute for a Paladin, and usually seeing this being cast at you means you've lost the fight. If the target goes above 20% HP when this is being cast, the spell cancels. (first acquired at level 44; 3 ranks; type: Holy, physical) Paladin Tips thumb|Paladin in full Judgement set. #People will expect you to heal if you don't have a priest or druid in your party (see Healadin) #When buffing start by buffing yourself and then the rest of the party, that way you will know that when your blessing runs out it's time to buff everyone again. #In instances, give casters Blessing of Salvation, unless they explicitly request something else. It saves them from attracting aggro which could otherwise cause a wipe. #Flash of Light is mana efficient. Holy Light is time efficient (despite the 2.5 second cast). While Flash of Light may constitute the majority of your heals, consider using Holy Light in emergency situations like in PvP. #If there are two or more paladins in your group, decide on who will do what auras. #In larger raids, one paladin should be doing Blessing of Might/Blessing of Wisdom, another Blessing of Light/Blessing of Salvation, a third Blessing of Kings on everyone, and the fourth paladin Blessing of Sanctuary/Blessing of Light. As far as blessings goes, four paladins should suffice for 40 man raids. #Do not cast Blessing of Protection on tanks - even if it seems like they will die (unless some strategy requires it). It is generally ok to cast protection on a melee DPS class, however, make sure to give them a different blessing (to erase the effect) once they are healed. It is almost always ok to cast Blessing of Protection on a caster. Talents Paladin Talents are split into 3 categories: * Holy * Protection * Retribution Talent builders can be found at: * Official Blizzard site * Panda Hideout * WoW Vault * ThottBot * Merciless * Wowhead Some good info at the official WoW forums: End-Game Expectations Raiding: Pre-expansion patch 2.01) A Paladin is valued in raids for the buffs they bring, their ability to cleanse, and almost always be used as a healer. Paladin healing is valued in that it is very mana efficient, if not the most powerful; the quick, smaller, low-threat heal of Flash of Light filling a niche in healing. Utility from judgements is also valued, albeit somewhat situationally. Paladins as tanks or damage-dealers are rare, due to several factors: It is significantly harder to acquire gear for damage or for tanking as a paladin, as Tier 1, 2, and 3 support healing and support over melee, paladins have had little ability to specialize as their talent trees were jumbled, and a stereotype that Paladins simply cannot fulfill these roles. Raiding: Post patch 2.01 The changes have effectively rounded out the paladin class, allowing for specialization that was sorely needed. Deeper trees have enhanced all three roles that the paladin can choose to fulfill. Tanking is made more viable by increased aggro and mitigation talents, the introduction of Spiritual Attunement for longevity, Consecration made trainable and a taunt in the form of Righteous Defense. The Paladin is now almost as good (if not on par depending on gear) as a Warrior at main tanking, and the best off-tank due to their multi-target tanking abilities. Changes to the Retribution tree, primarily Sanctified Crusader and Crusader Strike, have increased the value of at least one Paladin per raid spec'ing deep into the tree, with increased utility and damage. Please keep in mind that, until the expansion pack is released, most gear itemization that exists for the paladin class focuses mainly on the defensive healing aspect of the class. This will change drastically after 1.16.07 as itemization will cater to and reflect on the more diverse nature of the paladin class abilities of tanking and alternate dps trees. Paladins and Druids are currently set up to be the most readily accessible tanks for 5-10man groups while Warriors, for the most part, will still maintain their role as large raid boss tanks. The Death of Decursive and Emergency Monitor Targeting With the introduction of the 2.0.1 patch, Blizzard changed a lot of the source code that allowed for macros and mods to do 'smart' things, such as run basic 'if then' searches for casting cleanse or allowing you to cast heals based on emergency monitor list populations. There are several attempts to revive the Decursive mod, but so far, none have come close. As it is, your best bet for quick and easy cleansing in raids is to use programs such as CTRA or ORA, which allow you to have player raid tiles highlighted when they are afflicted by a status ailment that you can cleanse. There is also an addon called SmartBuff that has been updated for patch 2.0.1, which contains a sub-addon called SmartDebuff. SmartDebuff creates a small window your UI that highlights party members when they obtain a debuff that your character class can remove. What makes this especially useful, is that you simply click that highlighted name and the appropriate cleansing spell will be cast, without losing you current target. In addition, several paladins have had success using modifications called "Grid" and "Clique" in conjunction. Grid puts an overlay of the raid on your screen with visual updates for certain types debuffs (Magic, Curse, Poison, Disease) in addition to status indicators (Death, Aggro, Incoming Heals, Low Mana, Health Deficit). Clique allows you to bind your mouseclicks and keyboard & mouse click functions to certain spells; for instance, Shift+Left Click will automatically cast "Flash of Light" at the max rank. This will help the paladin react quicker to healing situations as you do not have to select the target you are trying to heal first, then cast the spell. Similarly, those not using SmartDebuff due to its rather bland graphical interface may want to look into Grid & Clique to bind cleanse to Right Click, or another convenient spell. Grid distinguishes between the different types of cleansable debuffs. Once you have that, you have two different options to choose from, both of which require you to learn how to play 'wack-a-mole'. Either bind cleanse to a specific keyset (shift+left click) and simply click on the afflicted players, or use the mouseover function in the mod Bigwigs which allows you to simply move your mouse over the raid-player tile and press your cleanse hotkey without having to target them with a mouse click. Some folks have come up with brute-force cleansing macros that simply cycle through the entire raid, one player at a time, checking for status ailments, but this takes far too long and requires too many button pushes. It is simply more time effective to learn how to play Blizzard's wack-a-mole cleansing encounters the way they designed them to be played. Healing in Instances Tanks will almost always get Blessing of Light. The only exception of this is the rare occurrence that the Paladin will not be the primary healer, as Blessing of Light only benefits Paladin healing. As an alternative, use Blessing of Kings to increase the tank's health and other stats, or use Blessing of Might for more attack power. As of patch 2.0.1, paladins have gained a huge amount of crit to there Holy Light spells when they spec into the holy tree. Holy paladins have a far better ability to spam rank 4 Holy Light on tanks that have Blessing of Light. Even with the down ranking nerf, this is still the most healing per mana. Holy Light also has around 23% crit depending on gear. The paladin is a combat healer. They spam Flash of Light (FoL), raid/group wide, in an effort to keep their teammates alive. With that in mind, be intelligent about how you heal and what various levels of FoL one can use to get the job done. Example: A player near full health, who has suffered minimum damage, can either live without a heal or can be easily capped off by a rank 3 or 4 FoL (thus saving you mana). A player who has taken considerable damage (the MT/OT for example) should have max rank FoL cast on him. THIS TECHNIQUE WILL SAVE YOU MANA. And we all know that for any serious, prolonged fight, you damn well need it. With some talents, such as Sanctified Light, Improved Blessing of Wisdom, Illumination, and Divine Favor, Paladins running out of mana within a fight should be a rarity. Illumination returns the mana cost of any spell when you get a critical heal. Divine Favor guarantees a critical heal, Sanctified Light gives you 6% more critical chance to Holy Light, Holy Power gives you 5% more critical chance, and Divine Intellect further increases your critical spell chance. All the while, Improved Blessing of Wisdom will be regenerating your mana as well. Paladins usually give themselves Blessing of Wisdom in instances to keep their mana regeneration up. In the event there are two paladins, the second blessing should be something that fits the role both are playing. Many paladins prefer not to have Blessing of Salvation, as the heals from paladins already generate a low amount of threat. Choose Blessing of Kings to increase your mana and critical chance, or you can cast Blessing of Light if the paladins are tanking or you anticipate a battle where you will be damaged. Healing in PvP The paladin's role as a combat buffer and healer is especially well-suited for battlegrounds. Your short duration buffs are ideal in these situations, as they cost very little mana and their short duration isn't drawback when players are sure to die or get dispelled within 5 minutes. Compared to the costly 30 minute buffs of other classes, the efficiency of the paladin blessings truly shines here. Your toughness makes you an ideal healer as well. Unlike priests, you will often not be the first priority for your opponents as you're too tough to take out quickly. This leaves you more freedom to heal. Be wary though, as some well structured pvp groups will specifically kill ALL healing targets first. The paladin also has the best weapon in any pvp situation ,Blessing of Sacrifice. Even though this is a base skill, this blessing will get you out of just about all crowd control. In addition, this also allows you more time to actual heal the target because some damage is being diverted to you. With the increasing amount of crowd control spells, this is a must for any combat situation. The infamous "bubble" is what makes paladins such great healers, giving them 12 seconds of totally uninterrupted healing. Spam -max rank- FoL and keep allies targets alive. For anyone nearing death, Divine Favor+HL will heal them near full unless they're a well equipped warrior or druid in bearform. Be savvy about how you go about positioning yourself in pvp healing situations. Normally, most pvp'ers will experience tunnel vision and only focus on their immediate surroundings. Stay back. Stay under cover if possible, and keep your team alive. You will cause more aggravation to your opponents keeping your team alive than you will sitting in the middle of the action dumping a consecrate and bubble healing. Healing in PvP post 2.01 The holy tree has been vastly improved since the introduction of the 41point talent trees. The three key talents for any serious PvP healer are Light's Grace, Blessed Life, and Holy Guidance. This allows you to last much longer than before while saturating your surrounding allies with heals. Light's Grace allows you to quick-fire Holy Light heals for larger burst healing effectiveness. This also is a magic buff, that when used correctly, can dodge a mass dispel. This however will be pointless after patch 2.0.10 where immune effects are targeted first. Blessed life will mitigate 10% of all incoming attacks to 50% of their normal damage. Taking into account that we wear plate and use shields, this is a much aggravating talent to all melee classes that cross our paths. Holy Guidance will increase your overall spell damage and healing based upon your current int scores. Solo healing When you find yourself in solo combat, use your best judgement as to when to use FoL vs HL. Divine Favor while in the "bubble" and max rank HL is a common tactic. FoL a few times after a stun is also another common tactic, seeing as how you're in solo combat, mana conservation will be important. (Although, for truly mana efficient healing, bandaging while bubbled is better, using the Divine Favor + HL after stunning the opponent.) Quests Paladins have several class-specific quests which allow the character to learn valuable spells. See the Paladin Quests page for an outline of these quests. See Also *See Starting a Paladin for some advice when starting out. *See How paladins heal for advice on paladin healing. *See the Paladin Category for further information on the Paladin class. *See Paladin Talent Discussion for information on common Paladin Talent Builds. *Higher level Paladins will want to stop by on the following pages: ** Paladin Armor Sets **Paladin Armor Set Comparison *Statistics of paladins from Warcraft II *Also, some good info at the official WoW forums: ** Paladin Guide ** Geld's Paladin Guide * Divine Magic ---- Category:Classes Category:Paladins